What Am I Looking For When Comparing Various Shops?

[Ozle]

Ahhh, the Mighty Staines! My home town.

I quite like Staines WaterWorld. The shop can look a bit shabby (it's basically a very big tent), but the prices on the fish is very reasonable, and generally in good health.

Take a trip to Ashford Aquatics. Great little independant. Always got something a bit different and they have good prices as well.

I think I have travelled to them all recently. I did like the look of the fish in AA, but of course had no idea at the time what I was looking for.

There is a Maidenhead Aquatics at the Garden centre on Laleham road that doesn't look too bad.

I went to World of Water, and they had a fish there I cannot place, but i think its because they were babies, Dwarf Something (algae eaters) had a small round body and a long tail, like a sideways letter P. Will go back when they are a bit more grown I think just ot set mind at rest.

 

[DBT85]

Don't forget that there is no moral obligation to get your fish from the same shop as you get your tank. Obviously, it's nice if you can but sometimes you can't. I am happy using a local largish store for dry goods, but I order my fish online because the shops around here that are easily accessible for me (a non-driver) aren't that great on fish and I'd rather not have more nasties imported into my house.

When I am in a fish shop I tend to look at the guppies. A shop that has healthy vigorous guppies will probably be doing everything else right too. If there is a problem either with the shop or the supplier that's where it will shop.

I know, as I said I just like to try and support local and small business where I can within reason.

As it turns out the first and only shop that I've been in thus far (Lynwood Aquatics) is selling the Rio 240 and cabinet for just £395! Thats £45 less than Seapets and Charterhouse.

I'll keep an eye out for the guppies though! thanks for the tip

 

[DBT85]

I just went to view three of the shops on my list. The first one was Living Waters in Croydon. Sadly there seemed nowhere to park around there at all so I'll have to try again on a weekday when it's a little quieter.

The second shop was Maidenhead Aquatics Croydon which was a nice bright clean shop. The two girls in there were quite chatty and seemed to be keepers themselves which is always a positive. There were plenty of tanks (maybe 150?), all looking clean, almost all with some kind of substrate in, though only a few mm but also many with bogwood or other features in for those fish that want them, obviously also on sale!. All the fish looked active as did the snails, shrimp, crabs and in one tank 4 albino frogs. Every tank had an image of the fish on sale on it, with some details about the final size, community/specialist, feeding and so on so it was easy to identify what you were looking at if you didn't already know.

I took special interest in those Guppies who all seemed very active and also all separated into colours so all yellows, all reds etc. Some fish that took my interest in there that I managed to get names and prices of are below(No idea how good/bad these prices are yet).

• Adolfos Cory - £16.50 or 3x for £45
• Panda Cory - £6.50 or 3x for £18
• Red Dwarf Gourami - £12.50
• Zebra Loach - £5.50 or 3x £15
• Dwarf Gourami - £12.50
• Red Lined Torpedo Barb - £8.50 for small, £13.5 for others.
• Yellow Guppies - £2.75 or 6x for £15
• Yo Yo Loach £4.95 or 3x £13.50
• Endlers Guppy £2.75 or 6x £15 (I think these were all male as they all had very bright colours)

I've not looked at how likely the chances are of me being able to have all in one tank but I'm looking forward to finding out. Since I'm going for a dark tank most would add plenty of colour.

Anyway, I eventually stopped browsing and mentioned to the women there that I was after a Roma 240 with black cabinet and one of them remembered speaking to me yesterday. It turned out that the price she gave me over the phone of £440 was actually wrong and it should have been £410. Once the 20% discount was used it brought it down to £330 which was great! I paid there and then to get the discount and took the tank home with the cabinet to be in stock on Thursday. The women even carried it out for me!

My next stop was Heritage Farm Nurseries in Wallington. This shop is down a tiny little road with lots of twists and turns. As you pull up outside and open the door the sounds of a rainforest are being played over speakers. Maybe to get you in the mood or something, it felt odd though. The fish section was small with maybe 30 tanks for tropical, about half had images and some details about the fish on, others were hand written with no details, just a price. The selection was obviously much smaller but I think they had Dwarf Gourami for under £6 which is obviously cheaper than the previous place. I didn't manage to get any other prices.

Tomorrow morning the wife and I are heading to World of Fishes in East Grinstead and will probably also pop in to MA @ gatwick.

Glad I've finally put some names to fish and started getting some ideas of what I want!

 

[DBT85]

So today the wife and I headed out to World of Fishes in East Grinstead and Maidenhead Aquatics at Gatwick.

World of fishes ha an ample car park to the rear with an entrance through the goldfish/koi, then through the marine before you get into the main shop. It was empty when we got there at about 10:20 but within 15 minutes the little shop was packed! Tanks all looked clean, all had some substrate and many had some kind of feature and the fish all looked happy enough from what I could gather.

The selection of fish here was smaller than at MA in Croydon but the prices seemed much better and the shop is only 10 minutes further away!

• Red Dwarf Gourami - £4 each (all male)
• Moonlight Gourami - £4.95
• Pearl Gourami - £4.95
• Golden Platy - £4.95 a pair
• Corydoras Elegans - £6.25
• Bronze Corydoras - £4.25
• Corydoras Julii - £5.10
• Pepered Cory - £3.95
• Emerald Eye Rasbora - £1.25 each or 4 for £4.50
• Cardinal Tetra - £1.95 each, 4 for £7.50 or 11 for 19.50
• Runnynose Tetra £2.10 each or 4 for £8
• Emperor tetra - £2.10 each or £4 for £8
• Neon Tetra £1.25 each or 4 for £4.50

As you can see for yourselves, the Red Dwarf Gourami are 1/3 of the price here!

Next we shot off to MA @ Gatwick. Much like its Croydon Branch they have more room and as a result a few more tanks here. The fish again all looked healthy and active, the tanks clean and most filled with some kind of substrate and feature. Interestingly some fish were much cheaper here than at its sister branch in Croydon while some were slightly more expensive. I get the feeling the shops are left to set their own prices even though they are all part of the same franchise.

• Endlers Gubby - £3.50 or £6 for £20
• Polka Dot Loach - £8.50 or £3 for £24
• Dwarf Gourami - £9.50 a pair
• Dwarf Gourami - £8.50 each or £15 a pair (yes there were two labels with two different prices)
• Emerald Catfish - £12.50 each or 4 for £45
• Blue Dwarf Gourami - £8.50 or £15 a pair
• Kulhi Loach - £3.50 or 6 for £20
• Bristlenose Catfish - £6.50 each of £3 for £18
• Rubuti Corydora - £6.50 or £3 for £18
• Red Lined Torpedo Barb - £12.50 each or 3 for £35

There were many more fish in each store, I just took pictures of anything that looked like it might make a nice addition to my still empty tank. I have to say that having the variety of the Maidenhead Aquatics stores is nice, and that they have basic information on every fish on a little card about max size and so on is very handy. However the prices were mostly higher and in some cases much higher than World of Fishes. Sadly we didn't have time to chat to any of the staff today as we had lunch booked so had to shoot off, but I'll definitely be paying East Grinstead another visit in a few weeks. For now I have some species to read up on to see which would make suitable tank mates and what their needs might be. In the meantime I'll have to phone and ask if they can get any Gold Laser Corys in and how much they'll be. I WILL have some!

 

[Lufbramatt]

If it's not too far away be sure to check out Abacus Aquatics in sidcup. It's not a huge shop but what's there is superb. All the tanks are spotless and he has a good range of interesting fish, many of which I had only previously seen in books! Went up there for the first time this afternoon and ended up spending 45 mins chatting to the owner over a mug of coffee Now that's service. Was pleased that I was asked how big my tank was, how long it's been running, tankmates etc. Had some unusual cories, lots of cichlids, and many more. Now I usually am not a fan of Bettas, think they can be really ugly, but he had some half moon bettas that were some of the most amazing looking fish I have ever seen.

Some of the tanks even contained cichlid fry that had bred whilst in the shop, these obviously wern't for sale but nice to see.

Came home with two gorgeous little synodontis lucipinnis catfish which I've been trying to find locally for ages. will defo be going back for more!

 

[DBT85]

I might pop in there next time I'm visiting my grand parents so thanks for that

I popped back to MA @ Croydon today to pick up some tubing and filter floss for my father-in-law. Had another mooch at the fish and compared a few prices to the World of Fishes store in East Grinstead. The woman there (I really should catch her name) did confirm for me that the Red Dwarf Gourami at £12.50pr were for a pair. I thought it might be when I saw the price in other stores but I thought it best to check. Plenty of others were actually not too bad on price. Some were more expensive for one but cheaper if you bought 4 or 6 which is good.

One thing I did take more time to look at today were the Panda and Adolfi Corys. Both so adorable! I asked her about the Gold Laser Corys and she said that others had asked and that they couldn't get them but the larger store in Morden might be able to.

This was the first chance I'd had to talk to her properly and she seemed very knowledgeable and also quite pleased that she had a customer who know a little about what they were after rather than nothing at all which seems common.

I also took a note of some other fish to research that looked interesting. Black Phantom Tetra, Indian Banded Gourami, White Gourami and Opaline Gourami. The latter three might look quite nice in a larger tank.

The only thing I'm not not sure about is the Gold Laser Corys. They look great but I also really like the Adolfo's and the Pandas of which the latter also stay quite small I think.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Adolfo corys look amazing. go with them.


Tom